For those of us who do RF engineering, there’s nothing like the feel of a low ESR ceramic chip cap held in tweezers in one hand and a fine tip soldering iron held in the other punctuated by the tangy aroma of pine rosin. Ahhh! Open any electronic device you […]
Hans
639 posts
In most jurisdictions, it is legal to video record the police in public places where they would have no expectation of privacy. That right is not always upheld in practice, however. Writing in Reason, Randy Balko examines some recent cases that illustrate the importance of allowing citizens to use technology […]
The popular image of Kennedy family patriarch, Joseph Kennedy, as a bootlegger with mob connections is thoroughly debunked in a new history of Prohibition, Last Call, by Daniel Okrent. An excerpt is available here.
A few quick picks: Author Sarah Hoyt has an insightful essay on immigration posted over at Classical Values. Ronald Bailey looks at the myth of the “peer-reviewed” science in the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report at Reason. “Tiger Woods had Sex with 121 Women While Married” – Opposing Views, April 29 […]
Another “benefit” of the new health care bill is yet another IRS mandate. This one is a doozy. When a business pays an outside consultant or contractor more than $600 in a given year, that business is required to issue a 1099 form reporting the payment to the consultant or […]
My company has a summer intern program for undergraduates. A good number of resumes pass through my inbox. But I have never seen an intern applicant with this kind of attitude.
While I was goofing off in high school in the early 1980’s, Scott Savage was busy building what may well have been the world’s first checker playing robot: “Lefty.” Lefty was an Armdroid robot arm run by an Atari 800 computer that debuted at the Oklahoma City Omniplex (now the […]
By law, 2.5% of all Federal extramural research funds are set aside for contracts or grants under the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program – approximately $2 billion each year. SBIR contracts are typically $100k for a Phase I proof-of-concept. If the Phase I is sufficiently promising, an agency might […]
I don’t even have a T-shirt to show for it! The very first Bluetooth Headset I had (a Motorola HS280) was so quiet that even with the volume turned way up I couldn’t always hear it. I solved that problem by buying a Plantronics Voyager 510. It turns out that […]
Responding to complaints from AT&T mobility regarding interference, the Dallas Office of the FCC discovered a 5W cell phone jammer in operation at the Cosmetology Career Center in Carrollton, TX. Judging by the enforcement letter, there appears to be no indication that the folks at the Cosmetology Career Center received […]
Canadian climatologist Andrew Weaver is suing the National Post for libel based on its continuing reporting on Weaver’s climate advocacy. Ars Technica has details. Interestingly, Weaver also seeks copyright to the material in question so he can force bloggers to remove it from the internet. This will be a fascinating […]
You may have followed the saga of the Apple engineer who “lost” a prototype of the next generation iPhone in a bar? A prototype that just happened to end up with technology blog Gizmodo? Of course, there was skepticism about how accidental that might have been, largely dispelled by Gizmodo. […]
You may recall the case of Richard Jewell, the security guard whose keen eye and quick thinking saved lives in the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in 1996. Jewell was hounded as a suspect for several months in the investigation that ultimately led to the conviction of Eric Rudolph in 2005. […]
John Wilkes Booth was shot and killed this day, April 26, 1865, ending the most comprehensive manhunt in U.S. history. James Swanson tells the story of Booth’s preparation and planning, the assassination of Lincoln, Booth’s escape from Ford theater, and his nearly two weeks on the run. Swanson dispels the […]
This interesting article from the NYT compares and contrasts the safety and business practices of the Upper Big Branch Mine with those of the nearby E3-1 Mine, run by TECO Coal Corporation. While the details on the culture and practice of mine safety are of technical interest, of greater interest […]